New Yorkers can’t beat the housing heat this summer – foreclosures in the city were up 67 percent in July compared to the same month last year as me loans and a cooling economy scalded homeowners.

The outer boroughs in particular felt the burn, with the number of auctioned-off homes in Queens surging 81 percent last month compared with July 2007. Staten Island registered a shocking 215 percent increase in the same period.

Brooklyn reached a two-year high in foreclosure auctions, a 63 percent spike in July 2008 compared to July 2007, while The Bronx recorded a sizable 16 percent increase, according to data compiled by real-estate tracking firm Propertyshark.com.

Manhattan didn’t emerge unscathed. While only 7.6 percent more homes hit the block last month than in July 2007, there was an alarming 55 percent increase in foreclosure sales from June to July of this year.

Citywide, 2,216 residents have lost their homes to foreclosure already this year. The figure was 338 last month alone – compared to 203 in July 2007.

Queens shouldered more than half of the city’s total last month, with 178 homes being foreclosed.

The borough appears to be at the epicenter of the national housing crisis, facing a triple threat of rising foreclosure rates, a 40 percent decrease in the number of homes sold in the first half of 2008, and median sale prices plummeting to $413,000 from $452,000.

Brooklyn recorded 63 foreclosure auctions, followed by Staten Island with 54 – an 86 percent leap from 29 foreclosures in June.

Although foreclosures remain limited mainly to low-income areas, they’re having a domino effect that has driving down prices citywide, said Saniford.

In an effort to get the crisis under control, the state court system is launching a program this month offering free legal and financial advice to struggling homeowners aimed at avoiding seizure of their homes.

State-appointed mediators will also be offered to sit in on meetings between debtors and lenders aimed at finding solutions before the case lands in court.

The mediation program will be launched in Queens and extended to other boroughs next month, said Angela Badamo, the assistant counsel for the court system.

Meanwhile, a new law that forces banks to give homeowners 90 days’ notice before beginning foreclosure proceedings goes into effect next month. It forbids the imposition of legal fees or foreclosure costs for those 90 days, giving homeowners more time to find money needed to clear their debt.

Despite the bleakness of July’s housing statistics for New York City, Big Apple foreclosures still lagged far behind other US cities in the number of houses being seized.